A Desert Scrapbook: Dawn to Dusk in the Sonoran Desert - Hardcover

Wright-Frierson, Virginia

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0689806787 ISBN 13: 9780689806780

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 1996

Synopsis

An intimate and informative portrait of a single day in the Sonoran Desert captures the plant and animal life of the region, in a richly illustrated study that offers personal anecdotes and observations about the region.

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews:

Subtitled ``Dawn to Dusk in the Sonoran Desert,'' this is a fascinating personal introduction to the ecology of a desert. In her first solo effort, Wright-Frierson (illustrator of Sheila Cole's When the Tide Is Low, 1985, among others) organizes her book as a series of dawn-to-dusk, sketchbook impressions made during many trips to the desert for observation and watercolor painting. The vivid text takes the form of involving first-person journal entries that accompany accurate, beautiful watercolors of the desert (in one, she includes her own hands sketching in a notebook as part of the illustration). Roadrunners, tortoises, jackrabbits, snakes, elf owls, and woodpeckers are just a few of the animals observed and documented in their habitat, while Saguaro cactus, creosote, acacia, prickly pear, and mesquite fill each page. There is much to enjoy, but the first lessons to absorb are on becoming careful, consistent investigators of nature. Exemplary science writing. (Picture book/nonfiction. 6-9) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-6?An artist's readable narrative accompanies her accomplished drawings in this slim, colorful volume. Wright-Frierson invites readers to spend a day in her company, savoring the Sonoran Desert of the American Southwest. She presents a dawn to dusk panorama in a profusion of watercolor sketches and a brief, conversational text. While calling to mind Jennifer Dewey's Night and Day in the Desert (Little, 1991) or Joyce Powzyk's Wallaby Creek (Lothrop, 1985), this artist's sketchbook is intensely personal. Her goal is not scientific depth, though the snippets of information may well entice the intellectually curious to conduct further investigations. Rather, her "scrapbook" serves to give a rich impression of a unique ecological environment: a feel for a landscape of compelling extremes and the creatures who have adapted to meet its unforgiving demands. Admirably done.?Patricia Manning, Eastchester Public Library, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0689806787
• ISBN 13: 9780689806780
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Wright-Frierson Virginia